This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Pickering airport redux

In March 2012, residents of Brougham celebrated 40 years of successfully keeping an airport off the Class A farmland expropriated by the federal government for that purpose in north Pickering. On June 11, 2013, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced the Pickering airport will go ahead. (VINCE TALOTTA / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

Fri., June 14, 2013

Re: Feds finalize plans for Pickering airport, June 12

Feds finalize plans for Pickering airport, June 12

The announcement that Pickering airport is not dead and plans call for its construction and operation 15 to 20 years from now raises a number of questions about the validity of a decades-old plan when much in the GTA has changed since those decisions were made.

Obviously Pearson is constrained by its surroundings and also faces operational restrictions (curfew, noise abatement). However, the problem with the Pickering plan is that population growth in the GTA has been greatest to the west of Toronto, not to the east (though there will continue to be modest growth north of the 401 corridor to Oshawa, it will never match what’s taken place on the other side of the city). Any new major international airport would be better situated somewhere between Toronto and Kitchener/Waterloo where the population is going to continue to double every decade. Shouldn’t we be looking seriously at how viable the Pickering site is under today’s and tomorrow’s demographics, and not on what planners forecast decades ago? Not to mention the matter of getting to Pickering from the western GTA where the majority of travellers would be originating.

Yes, like London, England, and Sydney, Australia, the future of our major international airport is in question. But do we have the right answer for Toronto in Pickering? As someone who flies from Pearson almost every month to destinations around the world, I have my doubts.

Article Continued Below

David Balcon, Toronto

Whether we like it or not, with the current increase in population levels, the GTA will become closer to New York levels in 20 to 30 years. New York, by the way, is being served by three major airports. It’s always better to plan ahead than to suffer later — keeping the sorry state of our subway network in mind.

If the GTAA could provide a meaningful alternative to the Buffalo airport, the business sense of two airports is more than positive. By the way, let the proposed new airport have practicality, convenience, creativity, and well-planned and swift transportation systems as well as more natural light in the building — all of which are missing from Pearson, derailing the wholesome experience, compared to many international airports.

Nimalan Veerasingham, Toronto

What could be more predictable? The city of Toronto and the province of Ontario reach out for federal support for ending gridlock through expanded public transportation in the GTA, and the Harper government, through Jim Flaherty, fires back with a resurrection of the unneeded, unwanted Pickering airport — a costly symbol for Flaherty’s political world but another spit in the eye for Toronto.

William Michelson, Toronto

It is incredible that the Harper government has resurrected this dinosaur that nobody wants or needs. While most G20 nations are investing in passenger rail as the environmentally responsible means of travel, the Harper government slashed VIA Rail services in fall 2012 and more cuts are rumoured for fall 2013.

Simply put, if the billions needed for a new airport are invested in higher-speed rail (250 km/h) between London and Quebec City, there will be a drastic reduction in wasteful short-haul flights and Pearson will meet our air travel needs for another century.

Since Amtrak introduced its higher-speed Acela service between New York and Washington, rail’s share of this travel market more than doubled, from 33 per cent to 75 per cent. Only a government blind to the realities of climate change would consider investing in air over rail.

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com